BREAKING: Gingrich Finally Sees the Light at the End of the (Exit) Tunnel (UPDATED)

While Rick Santorum still refuses to officially endorse Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich has finally done the right thing — in addition to suspending his foolhardy campaign.

Mr. Gingrich plans to officially endorse Mr. Romney’s candidacy after suspending his own efforts next week.

Newt Gingrich called Mitt Romney today (Wednesday) and told him that he would suspend his presidential campaign next week and begin working to turn out conservative voters for Mr. Romney and Republican candidates in the fall election, according to Gingrich’s spokesman, R.C. Hammond.

Hammond said, according to the New York Times that Mr. Romney was “cordial and respectful” during the call and that Mr. Gingrich said he was “committed to helping him in the fall.”

My post on Romney’s clean five-state sweep last night was getting a little cluttered with updates and with news about Gingrich’s “will he stay or will he go?” changing positions that this news deserves a post of its own.

Yes, Newt Gingrich, the unstoppable, lovable Cheshire cat, has finally, begrudgingly realized that he is out of his depth, out of fresh sand in his sand box, out of money — his campaign has more than $4.3 million in debt — out of “reassessments,” out of steam, out of “establishment” support and patience and out of options.

Newt Gingrich will officially end his bid for the Republican presidential nomination and formally express his support for Mitt Romney next week, two sources close to Gingrich tell CNN.

While details are still being worked out, Gingrich is likely to hold his final campaign event Tuesday in Washington, DC where he will make the announcement surrounded by his family and supporters.

But will he still carry the Conservative banner to Tampa?

Author: DORIAN DE WIND, Military Affairs Columnist

slamfu

I’m still having a hard time believing its over. That was the most absurd primary season ever.

http://www.deanesmay.com DEAN ESMAY, Guest Voice Columnist

When Gingrich said a couple weeks ago that it was obvious that Romney was the presumptive nominee, it became obvious to me he was staying in the race for reasons other than to win. There are a number of sensible reasons for him to have stayed in as long as he did, but the main one from a party perspective was to prevent Ron Paul from being the only place left for Anti-Romney votes to go.

By staying in as long as he did, Gingrich was able to do all the following:

1) Assure himself a prominent voice at the convention
2) Assure himself a significant role in crafting the party platform (which he already stated clearly was one of his goals)
3) To continue to raise funds to ease his campaign debt
4) To help divert attention away from Ron Paul among any remaining anti-Romney voters.

Note #4, which is easy to overlook: there is a strong possibility that Romney and/or others in the Republican party asked him to please stay in for a bit longer (even after publicly admitting he was probably going to lose, which he did weeks ago) just to make sure that all the anti-Romney energy didn’t go to Ron Paul.

By conceding but not dropping out anyway, Gingrich could do all that, and the only people who’d really make fun of him for it would be people who already hate him.

Although he might have done a little better waiting a bit longer, I presume that Romney and other establishment figures have signaled to him that it’s OK to drop out now, Ron Paul is no longer viewed as likely to capture enough delegates to be a genuine nuisance, and Newt can go home and get ready to be a major force in Tampa.

Which, by the way, he will be.

DORIAN DE WIND, Military Affairs Columnist

Thanks for your views, Dean.

From someone who does not necessarily “hate” Gingrich, but rather dislikes him, distrusts him and , now hopes to be able to dismiss him.